10/9/10

Warsaw: Concert At The Park

Fantasie Impromptu, one of Chopin's famous works(video taken with my little Lumix DMC-FP1)

It's Frederyk Chopin's 200th birthday this year and all of Poland is throwing a yearlong birthday bash. In honor of his great contribution to music, concerts, exhibitions and competitions were held everywhere. We decided on our last day to see for ourselves one such event - held every Sunday from May to September at the Chopin Memorial in Lazienki Park. From Jerozolimskie, we started walking but realized the park is way further than we thought so we hopped on a tram with our unlimited passes. At the park entrance, we could tell where the exact venue was just by following the throng of people walking in the same direction. Chopin, and not Lady Gaga, apparently have more fans here.

Frederyk Chopin was a child prodigy whose hands worked wonders on the piano. While he was born close to Warsaw and grow up as a kid in the city, much of his later life was spent in Paris, France where he continued composing music, teaching piano and hobnobbing with fellow artists. His genius as a romantic composer soared to greater heights even while his health faltered, eventually succumbing to tuberculosis at a young age of 39. Before he died, he willed that his heart be brought back to Poland - which now rests in one of the pillars of Warsaw's Church of the Holy Cross.

A Chopin poster outside Lazienki Park

A local musician plays the violin hoping to get attention - and some donation

Chopin's bronze statue, erected in 1926, was destroyed by the Nazis during WWII.
The original mold fortunately survived the war. A replica was cast & erected in 1958.

Fans of classical music being treated to a Chopin piano recital on a pleasant Sunday afternoon

What better way to listen to Chopin's music than being surrounded by a riot of blooming flowers?

19 comments:

Oh I miss playing Chopin. I almost ended up as a music major in undergrad, and played the piano from when I was in middle school. I remember playing his nocturnes and mazurkas a lot, although his preludes were my favorite. The Fantasie-Impromptu however, was a pain, because the left hand had to play 3 notes per beat, while the right hand had to play 4 notes per beat, in a fast tempo.

Wow, that's interesting to know about Chopin, one of the better known artists of his time.

It's so great to know a lot of people still enjoy this kind of music. Here in the Philippines, I'm sure only a handful of people would come. We don't even see musicians on the streets asking for donations.

When I was in college my buddies tagged me as a "barbarian" because I refused to join their frat or any frats for that matter. Now, I think I am a "barbarian" for a different reason - my ears hurt when my wife plays the piano at home with all those classical "nonsense" (Don't let my wife know or I am dead meat LOL).